4.4 Article

Do predators react differently to dangerous and larger prey? The case of a mygalomorph generalist spider preying upon insects

Journal

ZOOLOGY
Volume 144, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

ELSEVIER GMBH
DOI: 10.1016/j.zool.2020.125863

Keywords

Foraging; flexibility; plasticity; defensive behavior; Arachnida; Araneae

Categories

Funding

  1. National Agency of Research and Innovation (ANII) under the National Researchers System (SNI)
  2. Sectorial Committee for Scientific Research (CSIC)
  3. Basic Science Development Program (PEDECIBA)

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This study showed that the type and size of prey can influence the behavior of spiders, with dangerous prey like carabid beetle larvae causing the predator to allocate more time towards capturing and consuming them. However, the specific spider species in this study, Paratropis sp., did not show significant differences in acceptance based on prey danger level or prey size, suggesting a potential adaptability in their feeding behavior.
Prey morphology and size are known to influence a predator's decision to attack and consume particular prey; however, studies that evaluate both traits simultaneously are uncommon. Here, we first described the tmphic niche in the mygalomorph spider Paratropis sp. These spiders have a narrow trophic niche and feed mainly on sympatric species such as larvae of lepidopterans and of beetles such as carabids, passalids and scarabeids. Second, we evaluated the effect of prey taxon and size on acceptance and immobilization duration, and built an ethogram of the predator's behaviors. For each prey taxa, we offered large (approximately same size than the spider) and small larvae (approximately half of the size of the spider) of the aforementioned prey. We classified carabid beetle larvae as the most dangerous prey because of their sharp mandibles and predatory habits, followed by scarabeid larvae; lepidopteran and passalids larvae were considered to be non-dangerous prey. We did not find a significant effect of prey taxon or size on spiders' acceptance. Prey size did not affect the time invested on each behavioral category, but prey taxon did. Moreover, although spiders used a similar strategy for capturing prey, they spent more time biting carabid larvae than other prey. Our results suggest that, at least in our study area, prey that are dangerous or the predator's size do not seem to affect Paratropis sp. acceptance per se, but can cause the predator to change the time budget allocated to each behavior.

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